The Girl with the Crooked Nose: A Tale of Murder, Obsession, and Forensic Artistry by Ted Botha

Biography. Forensics. Murder. Science. Art. Mystery. 

Rating: 4/5

Started: 29 April 2022

Finished: 1 April 2022

Summary:

    Journalist Ted Botha tells the story of Frank Bender on his journey from advertisement photographer to acclaimed forensic artist. After visiting the police morgue on recommendation from his art teacher, Frank became fascinated with skulls and all they could say about a person's face. Creating a plaster bust of what one skull must have looked like alive, Frank helped a dead woman be identified, and her murderer arrested. From there, he was hooked. His biography details the stories of his work: though forensic artistry payed next to nothing, Frank dedicated the rest of his life to helping put faces to the murdered. 

Thoughts:

    I never thought I'd read a biography, but here I am. I guess murder changes things, because this book was fascinating. It gave a look at forensics from a perspective I'd never seen before. While it was glorified a little, it wasn't cinematized like most of the other murder stories I've seen. The book didn't gloss over the boring or uneasy parts, and went into a lot of detail for the forensic processes and details about the bodies. 

    I wasn't a huge fan of the writing. It felt like the adult version of a kids' chapter book: the writing felt very round and simple, which was disappointing for having been written by an author who was previously published in the New York Times.  The end of the book was also very weird. There was some case closure but no real personal closure for Frank. 

    I think that forensic science and murder are really fascinating, and so I'm very glad I read this book--actually, I intend to find other forensic biographies to read in the future because I was so fascinated by this one. If I wasn't so utterly neutral on science, I would definitely be interested in going into the field of forensics.